The suit filed against Google by AgenceFrancePresse has enormous implications for everyone from the largest online media publisher to the most insignificant cyber-scribbler.

Those of us who wish AFP weren't so persnickety would like to argue that the "fair use" provision of the copyright law permits someone to publish quotes or extracts of copyrighted material for purposes of reporting or commenting on the news.

If AFP and the other producers of copyrighted content push the issue, all online publishers either will be forced to pay copyright fees or run the risk of being sued into oblivion.

AgenceFrancePresse ought to recall -- but probably will not -- that the ordinary Americans who fund the vast majority of the National Center's budget are among the American taxpayers who are paying about a quarter of the U.N.'s annual budget.

While I was distributing press releases about our toilet paper emissions credits outside a U.N. climate change panel discussion, an obviously upset reporter from AgenceFrance-Presse (regrettably, I was unable to get his name) approached me for a brief discussion regarding The National Center's climate activities.

Addendum 12/8: I have now been told that the name of the the name of the AgenceFrancePresse reporter is Richard Ingham.

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Bush told a press conference afterwards, "I've always said it's a serious long long-term issue that needs to be dealt with, and my administration isn't waiting around to deal with the issue.

France-based AFP sued Google in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, alleging that Google News infringes on its copyright by displaying AFP headlines, images and story leads without its permission.

AFP's lead counsel said the news services will continue to pursue its case, as well as a second case it filed a couple of weeks ago against Google in France.

The French case also centers on what AFP alleges is unauthorized use of its content on Google News, said Joshua Kaufman, a partner at law firm Venable LLP, in Washington.

The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of AgenceFrancePresse.

RIYADH, Jan 26 (AFP) - Sunni Muslim regimes long used to supremacy in the Arab world are bracing for a Shiite victory in the US-backed elections in Iraq, which some fear could translate into more Iranian influence and greater instability in the region.

These concerns were articulated by Jordan's King Abdullah II, who has accused Shiite Iran of trying to influence the polls in a bid to create a Shiite-dominated "crescent" extending from Iraq to Lebanon.

The initiative brings France into line with Britain, Switzerland and the United States, where authorities have either identified banned airlines or named countries where civil aviation regulations are deemed to be inadequate.

PARIS (AFP)  Acting in response to a series of civil aviation disasters, France published Monday a list of five airlines banned in its airspace for safety reasons.

"The only criteria for this action is security," he said while making an official visit in the south of France.

Google's decision is a direct reaction to a lawsuit AFP filed against the search engine provider alleging copyright infringement over the inclusion of AFP content in Google News, said Steve Langdon, a Google spokesman, on Monday.

An AFP spokesman in the agency's North America headquarters in Washington, D.C., declined to comment on the lawsuit.

AFP sued Mountain View, California-based Google in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday of last week.

Added to an AFP tally, the latest death raised to 285 the number of US soldiers killed in action since US President George W. Bush declared major hostilities in Iraq over on May 1, 2003.

An Iraqi cameraman working for the US television network ABC was killed on Friday by a bullet to the forehead when US troops fired in the direction of journalists during clashes in the flashpoint town of Fallujah, doctors and witnesses said.

During fighting in Fallujah, five Iraqis, including a cameraman working for ABC News were killed and seven others wounded in clashes between US troops and insurgents in Fallujah, according to hospital officials.

An AFP correspondent in Diwaniya, 180 kilometers south of Baghdad, said fighting flared overnight on Tuesday when coalition troops took control of Sadr's main office and confiscated a cache of arms.

Sadr, who is wanted over the alleged murder of a rival cleric last year, offered a ceasefire if US forces withdrew from their base outside Najaf, a spokesman said.

US-led coalition forces appeared to be trying to confine Sadr's uprising to the neighboring holy cities of Kufa and Najaf, where the cleric has been holed up for a month with thousands of armed loyalists.

LONDON, July 19 (AFP) - Almost 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since US and British troops invaded the country two years ago, an average of 34 every single day, a British study said on Tuesday.

More of the deaths overall have been caused by the actions of foreign troops than insurgents within the country, the study by Iraq Body Count and the Oxford Research Group said.

Ofir Pines, general secretary of the left-wing opposition Labour party, voiced fears that the raid on a suspected training camp for Palestinian militants northwest of Damascus would further inflame a volatile situation.

An editorial in the top-selling Yediot Aharonot said the attack early Sunday had achieved the opposite of its objective and highlighted the government's lack of options.

"This action could have extremely dangerous consequences and provoke an uncontrollable escalation," he told AFP.

A spokeswoman for the Bolshoi Theater was equally angered after 293 members of the State Duma, or lower house of parliament, voted Wednesday [2 March] in favor of a resolution requesting the legislature's culture committee to inspect the opera's content.

The lawmaker who introduced the resolution, Sergei Neverov, a member of the United Russia party that holds an absolute majority in the Duma and whose central platform is to support the policy choices of President Vladimir Putin, told AFP he wanted to "send a message" with the move.

TBILISI, June 5 (AFP) - Three UN observers in the troubled Caucasus republic of Georgia were taken hostage early Thursday on the country's border with the breakaway region of Abkhazia, a Georgian official told AFP.

Tamaz Nadareishvili, a senior Georgian official from the region based in Tbilisi, said that a group of eight people including four Russian peacekeepers, one intepreter and the three UN monitors were seized by unknown assailants.

The White House also pressed Powell to include charges that the suspected leader of the September 11 hijackers, Mohammed Atta, had met in Prague with an Iraqi intelligence officer prior to the attacks, despite a refusal by US and European intelligence agencies to confirm the meeting, the magazine said.

Cheney's aides wanted Powell to include in his presentation information that Iraq has purchased computer software that would allow it to plan an attack on the United States, an allegation that was not supported by the CIA, US News reported.

The pressure forced Powell to appoint his own review team that met several times with Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to prepare the speech, in which the secretary of state accused Iraq of hiding tonnes of biological and chemical weapons.

This service may include material from AgenceFrance-Presse (AFP), AAP(International), APTN, Reuters, CNN and

Ms Touch, 24, is one of a steadily expanding battalion of Cambodian missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who have been trained by their United States counterparts to take on the job of proselytising for themselves.

Their drive to convert has persisted despite a ban against door-to-door proselytising issued in February 2003 by a Government possibly alarmed at the swelling numbers of Mormons and other Christian groups here.

More Babies, Young Kids Going Hungry in US Published on Sunday, June 12, 2005 by AgenceFrancePresse

But infant-child protection centers do not exist in the United States, unlike it other countries, such as France, which makes children below the age of three or four years old somewhat invisible to authorities, laments Frank.

More Babies, Young Kids Going Hungry in US Increasing numbers of young American children are showing signs of serious malnourishment, fueled by a greater prevalence of hunger in the United States, while, paradoxically, two-thirds of the US population is either overweight or obese.

The US military officer presiding over the trial of an alleged aide to Osama bin Laden said he was not ready to rule out such evidence.

03/03/06 "AFP" -- -- US military officers, breaking with domestic and international legal precedent, said that "war on terror" military tribunals at the Guantanamo naval base could allow evidence obtained through torture.

Baghdad - Iraq's insurgency counts more than 200,000 active fighters and sympathisers, the country's national intelligence chief told AFP, in the bleakest assessment to date of the armed revolt waged by Sunni Muslims.